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Ingo Andersen "Playing in the zone" |
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Today, I made a fantastic discovery, at least for me it was fantastic. As some may know, I was recently featured in a article in the quarterly magazine West Lincoln, which is the magazine put out by the local Grimsby newspaper “News Now.” The journalist Joanne McDonalds byline was “Ingo plays in the zone”, an expression I used several times in her interview for the piece.
The website I came across was actually an ad for inthezone.com on Facebook. A very extensive article, with many pages of information about the course which promises that anyone can develop the ability to remember music, even if you previously didn’t have the skill. He mentions that those who naturally have the skill, are very lucky people. I suppose I should count in myself in that group, as I remember hundreds of songs, but what I want to discuss or debate is the theory put forth that the brain is somewhat akin to a muscle, that it can be exercised and grow, yes actually grow in dimension and thus expand the performance of it. One example laid out was a study, comparing London taxi and bus drivers memory capacity.
Bus drivers, used to the same route repeatedly every day, compared to taxi drivers constantly looking for new or easier routes, or longer routes if the goal was to make a ride longer for more profit. My journey towards expanded capacity to improvise melodies is a tangent of what the course is meant to do, which is memorization.
A by-product of the expanded use of the brain, which per the study, is a three pronged solution (?) So, instead of using your brain like the bus driver in a set pattern, remembering routes almost automatically without much thought, and more like the taxi driver trying new avenues all the time. I am a firm believer that as they say, "we only use 10% of our brain capacity.” I believe also ,that everything that ever happened in your life, everything that is, is stored in your subconscious storage of the brain, to be recalled at any time, So, phrases and licks, scales etc., are all there for you to recall. So, the ability to recall an actually be ‘trained’, just like a muscle, which is what I think happens when you get ‘into the zone.’
About ten years ago, I sat in at a gig with my friend George Grosman, a fine guitar player and singer who has done untold numbers of gigs, his whole life being spent in the music world. A friend introduced us, and I sat in o a gig he had in my town. After, he invited me to sit in any time he had a gig in my neighborhood. So, he was doing a gig in Oakville not far from my house. Ian McGillivray, a fine trumpeter, was his partner. Ian went to the washroom, and George and I waited, but then George said let’s do ‘Kiss to build a dream on’ a tune he just recently started playing. We started, and then he nodded for me to take over. I had a strange feeling coming over me, a shiver down my back sort of, and as I started playing something happened that I seemed to have no control over, and I started playing things that I really consciously did not plan, but I really liked it and as I seemed to relax, and let the ‘something’ take over, George got very excited, grinning broadly and saying :”Yes, yes! that's it, that’s it!"
In retrospect, I guess that the ‘creative juices’ I had heard about were now flowing, and what a revelation, I was euphoric at what had happened, seemingly without much ‘conscious input from me. A couple of days later, my wife and I attended a concert George had put on in Toronto. We sat in the middle of the audience ,when George came up and asked if I had brought my chromatic harmonica.: "Don't leave home without it” I quipped.
He returned to the stage and the show began with George, Ian, John Marks, a great violinist, Fabreeze the accordion player and Abbey Scholzberger the bassist. A wonderful group I had the pleasure of playing with before George ‘absconded’ read ‘moved’ to Florida...for me a great loss. So, mid show George invites me to come on stage. He whispers do Kiss to buld...
I gladly accept and George begins the tune. As he is playing. My thoghts go to the gig in Oakville a couple of days before and the same ‘feeling’ I had then seemed to come back, and when George nodded to me to take the solo I was super ready. Can’t explain it, but I seemed in a zone, yeah ‘a zone’ I played seemingly without me consciously having an input, it just came out wonderfully. I got quite a hand from the audience when I finished. Later that evening George phoned me and congratulated me on my performance: "You were the star” he said. WOW, I was floored. George does not suffer fools gladly, and a compliment from him was really something.
Sometime later I sat in with George’s band at The Rex, a well-known ‘high end’ jazz bar in Toronto. We were doing “I love Paris, where Abbey sings and when I’m ready, they accommodated my preference for playing any intricate improvisations in the key of C. Well, I was not ‘in’ the zone... I ‘owned’ the zone! WOW, and when I finished, George next to me leaned over and whispered:” Holy sh*t”, the finest compliment I ever had....
They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I beg to differ. At the spry age of 81, I’m still learning. Any improvisation now comes incredibly easy and flows at any speed. It's uncanny at least, but I’ll take it and run with it as much as I can, Thank You....
I would advise anyone who is looking to expand their musical capacity, whether it be for remembering songs or Train ‘your improvisation skills’ by taking a look at the website.
Ingo Andersen - Burlington, Toronto. Canada
Reference: www.playinthezone.com
The website I came across was actually an ad for inthezone.com on Facebook. A very extensive article, with many pages of information about the course which promises that anyone can develop the ability to remember music, even if you previously didn’t have the skill. He mentions that those who naturally have the skill, are very lucky people. I suppose I should count in myself in that group, as I remember hundreds of songs, but what I want to discuss or debate is the theory put forth that the brain is somewhat akin to a muscle, that it can be exercised and grow, yes actually grow in dimension and thus expand the performance of it. One example laid out was a study, comparing London taxi and bus drivers memory capacity.
Bus drivers, used to the same route repeatedly every day, compared to taxi drivers constantly looking for new or easier routes, or longer routes if the goal was to make a ride longer for more profit. My journey towards expanded capacity to improvise melodies is a tangent of what the course is meant to do, which is memorization.
A by-product of the expanded use of the brain, which per the study, is a three pronged solution (?) So, instead of using your brain like the bus driver in a set pattern, remembering routes almost automatically without much thought, and more like the taxi driver trying new avenues all the time. I am a firm believer that as they say, "we only use 10% of our brain capacity.” I believe also ,that everything that ever happened in your life, everything that is, is stored in your subconscious storage of the brain, to be recalled at any time, So, phrases and licks, scales etc., are all there for you to recall. So, the ability to recall an actually be ‘trained’, just like a muscle, which is what I think happens when you get ‘into the zone.’
About ten years ago, I sat in at a gig with my friend George Grosman, a fine guitar player and singer who has done untold numbers of gigs, his whole life being spent in the music world. A friend introduced us, and I sat in o a gig he had in my town. After, he invited me to sit in any time he had a gig in my neighborhood. So, he was doing a gig in Oakville not far from my house. Ian McGillivray, a fine trumpeter, was his partner. Ian went to the washroom, and George and I waited, but then George said let’s do ‘Kiss to build a dream on’ a tune he just recently started playing. We started, and then he nodded for me to take over. I had a strange feeling coming over me, a shiver down my back sort of, and as I started playing something happened that I seemed to have no control over, and I started playing things that I really consciously did not plan, but I really liked it and as I seemed to relax, and let the ‘something’ take over, George got very excited, grinning broadly and saying :”Yes, yes! that's it, that’s it!"
In retrospect, I guess that the ‘creative juices’ I had heard about were now flowing, and what a revelation, I was euphoric at what had happened, seemingly without much ‘conscious input from me. A couple of days later, my wife and I attended a concert George had put on in Toronto. We sat in the middle of the audience ,when George came up and asked if I had brought my chromatic harmonica.: "Don't leave home without it” I quipped.
He returned to the stage and the show began with George, Ian, John Marks, a great violinist, Fabreeze the accordion player and Abbey Scholzberger the bassist. A wonderful group I had the pleasure of playing with before George ‘absconded’ read ‘moved’ to Florida...for me a great loss. So, mid show George invites me to come on stage. He whispers do Kiss to buld...
I gladly accept and George begins the tune. As he is playing. My thoghts go to the gig in Oakville a couple of days before and the same ‘feeling’ I had then seemed to come back, and when George nodded to me to take the solo I was super ready. Can’t explain it, but I seemed in a zone, yeah ‘a zone’ I played seemingly without me consciously having an input, it just came out wonderfully. I got quite a hand from the audience when I finished. Later that evening George phoned me and congratulated me on my performance: "You were the star” he said. WOW, I was floored. George does not suffer fools gladly, and a compliment from him was really something.
Sometime later I sat in with George’s band at The Rex, a well-known ‘high end’ jazz bar in Toronto. We were doing “I love Paris, where Abbey sings and when I’m ready, they accommodated my preference for playing any intricate improvisations in the key of C. Well, I was not ‘in’ the zone... I ‘owned’ the zone! WOW, and when I finished, George next to me leaned over and whispered:” Holy sh*t”, the finest compliment I ever had....
They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I beg to differ. At the spry age of 81, I’m still learning. Any improvisation now comes incredibly easy and flows at any speed. It's uncanny at least, but I’ll take it and run with it as much as I can, Thank You....
I would advise anyone who is looking to expand their musical capacity, whether it be for remembering songs or Train ‘your improvisation skills’ by taking a look at the website.
Ingo Andersen - Burlington, Toronto. Canada
Reference: www.playinthezone.com